


Wanna Dance With Somebody

by Aklusmos



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, M/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24763666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aklusmos/pseuds/Aklusmos
Summary: Where does the team go when they're tired of line dancing? Certainly not anywhere TK was expecting.ORThat one time Judd went to a gay bar.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand, TK Strand & Paul Strickland
Comments: 12
Kudos: 262





	Wanna Dance With Somebody

**Author's Note:**

> So this fic totally ran away from me, what started as a 1000 word prompt fill somehow ended up over 3000 words with character interactions I had not planned on but oh well
> 
> This is set after "Studs" but sometime before "Monsters Inside". 
> 
> Title is because I was listening to 80's jams all week while writing this.
> 
> Based on the prompt from lauravenclaw:  
> 22) TK and Carlos are casually seeing each other, without putting labels on it and without TK’s team and dad knowing. One night, TK bails on a team outing with an excuse, to see Carlos, when they accidentally end up at the same place as the 126.

Paul desperately needs some caffeine to get through this shift, he knew he would regret starting that book last night but here he is once again. He’s rubbing at the corner of his eye when he walks into the kitchen to find TK sat alone at the island sipping a coffee and scrolling on his phone. He’s been meaning to thank him for the other night, but for some reason he’s been hesitant to bring it up in front of the rest of the crew. He starts loading the espresso machine and figures he can kill two birds with one stone.

“Hey, about the other night, thanks. It was exactly what I needed and I didn’t even realize it.”

“It was really no trouble at all, it was nice to have an excuse to go somewhere other than a honkytonk. I forgot how much I missed the gay bars in New York,” TK leans back in his seat and lays his phone down.

“Yeah, I guess it’s hard to meet guys at a straight bar,” Paul takes his espresso and leans back against the countertop. “Though you seemed to have managed it somehow judging by the way you and Officer Hottie were dancing. Here I thought you were single.”

“It’s not like he’s my boyfriend or anything,” TK fiddles with his mug of coffee and avoids eye contact with him. “We’re friends.”

“Friends, huh?” Paul raises his eyebrows.

“What?” TK huffs.

“It’s just I don’t normally eye-fuck my friends and then grind up on them on the dance floor.”

“We were not grinding,” TK rolls his eyes.

“Not going to deny the eye-fucking though?” Paul smirks and takes a sip of his espresso.

“C’mon dude, why are you busting my balls on this. We’re friends, friends dance together sometimes.”

“And here I thought we were friends but we didn’t do any of those things. Something you want to tell me?”

“Alright, fine, we hook up sometimes,” TK admits, he lets out a little sigh and then lowers the volume of his. “It’s just after the whole failed proposal thing back in New York I’m not too eager to jump into anything serious. So yeah we’re friends and yeah we hook up but I don’t know if I can handle much more than that at the moment.”

“Hey man, sorry I get it,” Paul moves to lay a reassuring hand on TK’s shoulder. “So who else knows about this whole thing?”

“I mean I don’t know who Carlos might have told, but for me? Just you,” TK looks down after he’s finished talking to start playing with his phone again.

Paul is momentarily struck speechless by the level of trust TK has just casually given him. Everyone has always referred to firefighters as a brotherhood but he’s never really felt included in that definition until the 126 and this moment really hits it home for him. He takes another sip of his espresso mostly to give him more time to form a response.

“Well if you ever want to talk to someone about him or anything else I’m here for you man.”

“Thanks I appreciate it,” TK flicks his gaze back to him and a small smile quirks up on his face. “I can see you’re dying from curiosity, I’ll answer three questions.”

TK has just given him a gift and Paul debates on how to best spend his three questions. The first is obvious though.

“So how long have you and Officer Hottie been doing the dirty?”

“Wow, not holding any punches are you Strickland?” TK’s laughing though so he must have expected this one. “The first night the team went out to the bar, after all you guys hit the dance floor Carlos came over and asked me to dance. Not something I was expecting in a cowboy bar.”

“That long? And nobody knows?” Paul whistles. “Damn, you’re sneakier than I thought. How did you even pull that off?”

“Not like we’re inviting anybody to join us in the bedroom,” TK waggles his eyebrows with a smirk on his face. “Also, it helps I hardly know anybody down here so as long as we stick to gay bars when we go out not like we’re going to run into anybody. That counted as a question by the way.”

Paul silently curses himself, he’s normally sharper than this but he let himself get distracted with the whole revelation. He gauges the smirk on TK’s face and decides he’s just going to go for broke.

“So I may be straight but I also have eyes, the dude is smoking with clothes on, so?” Paul trails off and TK bursts out a loud laugh.

“I don’t know if it should be illegal for him to keep his clothes on or off,” TK looks like the cat that got the canary. “Dude is ripped and knows how to use every one of those muscles if you catch my drift.”

“Why does that not surprise me?” Paul is a little bit jealous, while moving to Austin has been great professionally it hasn’t been too great on the romantic front.

TK looks like he’s about to elaborate more when Judd walks into the kitchen, Paul’s not sure if he’s annoyed or grateful.

“Hey y’all. Me, Marjan and the Probie were talking about heading out to the bar tonight after shift you guys coming?”

“Yeah why not,” Paul easily agrees and turns to look at TK.

“Nah, I think I’m going to call it an early night tonight. You guys have fun though.”

“Suit yourself,” Judd just shrugs and starts fixing himself a cup of coffee. “So what are you two hens gossiping about?”

“Just a club we went to the other night,” TK responds easily, Paul is impressed that he didn’t so much as stumble in his answer.

“What and you didn’t think to invite me?”

“Not really your type of club Judd.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Judd crosses his arms.

“He means it was a gay club,” Paul butts in because honestly can these two have a conversation without snipping at each other?

“Are they really that different from a normal club?” Judd seems genuinely curious now.

“Well for one they don’t normally play country music and two I can actually dance with a guy without someone picking a fight.”

“Huh,” Judd goes silent as he takes in that answer. He looks like he’s about to say something when the alarm goes off.

* * *

The crew of the 126 is crowded around their usual table at the honky tonk, it had been a pretty quiet day besides the one callout so they’re all still humming with energy. Judd is at the bar getting them a jug of beer and Paul can see Probie bouncing on his toes to the beat of the country song playing in the background while Marjan is alternating between swirling a piece of lemon around in her water and glancing towards the dance floor.

“You know what I miss most about Miami?” Marjan looks up from her water as Judd arrives back at the table. They all turn to look her waiting for her to continue. “Dancing.”

Judd looks from the dance floor to Marjan with his eyebrows raised. “And what exactly do you call that?”

“Judd you know I love you but that is not what I mean when I say _dancing_.”

“Alright, fine. What do you mean?” Judd challenges.

“Well for one music without a twang and two there’s a little more hip action involved,” Probie is nodding in agreement with her so it seems like he’s had his fill of country bars as well.

“Well how about we go to that place you and TK were talking about earlier then?” Judd looks at Paul for confirmation. "By the way you two were talking it sounds like it would tick all those boxes."

"You, Cowboy Judd, want to go to a gay bar?" Paul can't hide the amusement in his voice. "This I have to see."

"Hey, just cause I'm a cowboy doesn't mean I'm not open minded."

"Alright. Marjan? Probie? You guys in?" Paul turns to look at them.

"Hell yes!"

They knock back the remainder of their beer and then they're following Paul out the door. Paul texts TK, seeing Cowboy Judd in a gay club would probably make his year but by the time they’ve arrived at the club there’s still no response. The club is pretty packed and Paul can feel the base thrumming through his body, he glances over to Judd to gauge his reaction. Judd’s eyes are wide as he surveys the room and Paul can’t help but smirk at his dumbfounded expression.

“Not the Austin you’re familiar with?”

“You can say that again,” Judd snorts. “Where do we go to get a drink around here, I’m going to need a few more if you expect to dance like that.”

“That I would pay to see, the bar’s this way cowboy,” Paul starts leading them through the crowd, he’s just squeezed his way by a large group when he sees them. TK and Carlos must have been holding back on his account the other night because their bodies are completely plastered together moving in sync, foreheads pressed tight together and only a sliver of space between their lips. Paul glances back at his entourage, none of them have noticed TK yet and he briefly debates what his best course of action is. Just this morning it seemed like TK was hesitant to let the rest of the team know about his thing with Carlos. TK had really trusted him both by taking him out the other night and then filling him in on the situation today, Paul sighs and resolves to distract the rest of the team while he tries to help TK out of this.

“The bar is just over there, you guys go ahead I need to hit the men’s room,” Paul points in the direction of the bar where hopefully they’ll stay back on while he tries to make his way to TK.

“Alright, want us to get you anything?” Judd doesn’t seem suspicious at all so he’s probably in the clear for the moment.

“Yeah a beer would be great, just get me whatever you’re having.”

Judd, Marjan and Mateo continue on in the direction of the bar and Paul quickly turns to start putting this plan into action. He could try texting TK again but he clearly isn’t checking his phone with the way he’s grinding up on Carlos. He could try calling but he doubts he’ll hear the phone ring over the music in this place so that leaves him with his least favourite option: actually walking up and interrupting them. Never let it be said that Paul is a bad friend. He starts pushing between bodies to try to reach them as quickly as possible and just his luck when he’s almost next to them they’ve closed the last bit of space between their lips and are making out quite enthusiastically. Great.

“Fancy seeing you two here,” Paul interrupts and TK breaks away from Carlos to look at him eyes wide with surprise.

“Paul? I thought you were out with the crew?”

“I am out with the crew,” Paul can see TK still has a grip around Carlos’ waist. “They’re over at the bar getting a drink.”

Paul watches as TK’s face goes through a range of emotions before settling somewhere between frustration and curiosity. “Wait a second, when you say _they’re _here who do you mean exactly?”__

“Marjan, Probie and Judd.”

“Judd? Cowboy Judd? Is here, in a gay bar?” TK’s disbelief would be comical if Paul hadn’t had the same reaction earlier when Judd suggested the whole thing.

“Believe it or not the whole thing was his idea.” TK’s eyebrows fly up at that. “I texted you earlier to let you know we were coming so you could witness it for yourself but I can see you’ve been a bit too busy to check your messages.”

TK pulls his phone out of his pocket and sure enough there’s the text notification. He glances back at Carlos and they carry out a full conversation with their eyes and seem to reach some sort of consensus. Paul huffs out a laugh, keeping it casual his ass. Carlos says something into TK’s ear and TK just nods before turning back to Paul.

“Ok, this I have to see. Think I can convince a guy to hit on him?”

TK starts to follow him through the crowd but when he looks back he notices Carlos heading in the direction of the washrooms. When they reach the bar they find Marjan and Mateo but no Judd.

“Look who I found out on the dance floor.” Paul steps to the side revealing TK. “Where’s Judd?”

“He thought you got lost and went to find you,” Marjan supplies and then raises an eyebrow at TK. “I thought you were too tired to come out?”

“Well you guys failed to mention you’d be hitting a club,” TK just shrugs seemingly not bothered at being caught out.

“It was kind of spur of the moment, anyways we need less talking and more dancing. Probie let’s go,” Marjan grabs Mateo’s arm and drags him toward the dance floor.

“Well I guess we should go find Judd.”

Paul and TK keep to the edges of the crowd during their search, doubtful that Judd would brave the dancefloor without backup. They finally spot him standing with his back to a wall, two beers in hand, and looking very lost as he searches the crowd. The tension in his shoulders releases when he sees them approach.

“Oh thank god, I was standing here like a fly in a glue pot,” Judd hands one of the beers to Paul and then sizes up TK. “Thought you were too tired to come out tonight pretty boy.”

“Might want to be careful calling me that in here, Cowboy Judd,” TK teases. “People might get the wrong idea.”

“I’m a happily married man so they can all think what they want,” Judd pauses and takes a sip of his beer. “You know, you didn’t have to lie about being too tired to come out tonight, you could have just said you wanted to go looking for a man.”

Paul snorts into his beer and TK lets out a strangled laugh.

“I’ll keep that in mind for the future.” TK pulls his phone out of his pocket and glances at a message before quickly typing back a response. “So I hear tonight’s outing was your idea?”

“Why is everybody so surprised about that?” Judd huffs in annoyance. “Y’all always come out to my old haunts so visiting a spot like this once in a blue moon isn’t a big ask.”

“Well the next time you plan an outing to a gay bar count me in.”

“Oi, Reyes!” Judd suddenly calls out and TK and Paul turn to look behind them to see Carlos approaching. “Fancy seeing you here, small world.”

Paul watches as Carlos glances to TK for some guidance with the situation.

“Hey Judd, can’t say I expected to run into you here.” Carlos tucks his hands into his pockets and rocks slightly on his feet. Paul can tell he’s trying to stop himself from reaching out to TK. “What brings you out to gay bar?”

“Well I was informed by certain people in my crew that line dancing does not count as real dancing, so here we are.”

“I have to say I agree with that,” Carlos smiles and Paul may not be into men but he totally gets the look TK had given him this moving while discussing the cop.

“Are you here with guys from your precinct? Or just out with friends?” Judd glances around as if to locate said people.

“Uhhh…” Carlos’ eyes dart back over to TK. “I’m here with TK.”

“Oh? I didn’t know y’all were friends outside of work. You know you could have just invited him out with us TK, didn’t need to pretend to be tired.”

An awkward moment settles over the group, Paul stares at Judd in disbelief while he can see the twitch of a smile forming on TK’s mouth.

“Seriously Judd? Take a look around you.” Apparently antagonizing Judd is more important to TK than trying to keep whatever it is he has going with Carlos on the downlow. Judd does look around the club though and Paul can tell the exact moment it all clicks together for him because his eyebrows fly up and he takes a long drink from his beer.

“Well I guess I missed the memo on that,” Judd chuckles lightly. “So how long have y’all been together?”

Paul takes a sip of his beer, Judd’s really stepped in it now, but he’s also interested in TK’s response to see if it differs from earlier. TK hesitates though and Paul can see him and Carlos turn to look at each other before answering. For the second time that night Paul attempts to come to his rescue.

“What was it you called us this morning Judd? Gossiping old hens? Look at you now, man.”

Judd gives another chuckle, “Fair point.”

TK shoots a grateful look in his direction. “Well I don’t know about you two but I came here to dance.”

“Alright, go on,” Judd rolls his eyes. “That dance floor was not made for me.”

“Paul?” TK tips his head towards him.

“Nah, you guys go on. I’ll babysit Cowboy Judd.”

Judd lets out an indignant _hey_ while TK reaches over to Carlos and hooks his fingers into his belt loop to pull him backwards towards the dance floor with him. Carlos slings an arm over his shoulders as TK settles his arm around his waist and TK throws a little salute over his shoulder as they disappear into the crowd.

* * *

Two days later Paul finds himself hit with some reverse déjà-vu, he’s sat at the island drinking a coffee when TK wanders in and starts making himself a coffee.

“Hey, thanks for the other night, I really appreciate you distracting Judd so me and Carlos could get out of there.”

“No problem, that’s what friends are for right?” Paul smiles and then takes another sip of his espresso. TK smiles back at him and grabs his coffee to take a seat next to him. “Besides, that must be worth at least five questions?”

TK breaks out in laughter and nods. “I suppose it is.”


End file.
